My little Family
by baybeezoee
Summary: As he rushed towards her at high speed, he couldn't believe that they had finally found each other. There was no place Daryl wanted to be more than sat by the fire with the woman he was in love with. On one of the days where Daryl and Carol mourn Sophia the most, what can Daryl possibly do to make things better! Cute Caryl fluff set 5x01 "No Sanctuary" First TWD fanfic!


Daryl Dixon was angry. He was well passed angry, he was disgusted. Terminous. The one place he was sure he would be safe, where he was sure he could keep his whole group, or what was left of it, safe, was a lie. A huge. Fuckin. Lie.

Glenn was so close to dying. He couldn't even begin to imagine what Maggie's reaction would have been, even if she hadn't of lived for much longer afterwards at that place?! How dare they, how DARE they convince innocent men, women and children that it was a safe place! When the world is coming to the end and you're surviving in the middle of the apocalypse, you expect people to be working together! Sure as hell not eating one another!

What if Carl had been on his own and had followed the posters to the sanctuary? What if it had been Mika or Lizzie? Maybe, they had. He could only expect the worse from now on. They were eating children there! Even a Dixon would go as far as to say that was damn right wrong! Thinking of suffering children made him think of Sophia. He mourned Sophia every-day, probably more than Carol did, if he was being honest. She was something he definitely didn't want to think about right now, especially since Carol still hadn't come back. He was so mad at Rick. How could he have done that to her? She had been part of their group for as long as he could remember, way longer than Rick! She was family, and he could just send her away like that? On her own?

Rick wasn't stupid. He had to have known about Ed and all the things he had done to Carol. What if the governor had found her? The thoughts of what he could have done to her made his muscles tightened. He would have jumped that fence and killed him before he would have even realised what was happening.

He was used to loss. His brother had been a hard person for him to loose, but he knew that he wasn't good for him. He knew he should have died when he did. He was a useless crack head and had Merle been of no relation to him, he would have probably not given a damn that he was dead. But things were different now. He didn't feel as nervous anymore. He felt as if he would be known as more than just the guy with the idiot brother. The only place he could be himself was when he was with Carol. She knew him better and put more effort in to know him better over anyone else in the group. She could see that underneath the dirt, the crossbow and the muscle, that there was a heart of gold.

As the group walked quietly back through the forest, he observed the relationships that they had with one another. Carl and Michonne were messing around with Rick's Sherriff hat. Daryl smiled at their mother/son relationship. It's the type of thing he had had with Sophia, before she…turned.

Maggie and Glenn weren't letting go of one another, which to be honest, he understood. The newcomers that he still didn't know very well were huddled together, walking behind them. And then here he was, little ol' Daryl. The loneliest little redneck that was left in the state.

They stopped by a tree when they heard rustling from a little way down the woods. Rick handed out the weapons so that they would be ready for a walker attack. Daryl looked down at the pistol Rick had placed in his hand. It wasn't his crossbow. But what were the chances of him seeing that ever again? He pulled the trigger on the pistol and the group began walking forward again. The sound was getting closer and closer until a person, not a walker; a person emerged from behind the trees.

Before he knew what he was doing, he was running towards her at high speed. He saw his beloved crossbow in her hands but he didn't care. He wrapped his arms tightly around her, causing her to drop the weapon on the floor and hold him tightly in her arms. Tears were rolling down his cheeks as they were down hers too. He picked her up off the ground and swung her gently. He didn't care that the whole group were watching them. He didn't care that a herd of walkers could hear their sobs and come running any minute. All that mattered was her, was them. He could hear Rick and Maggie walking over slowly to them. Carol let go but Daryl wasn't ready to lose contact with her just yet. He rested his head on her shoulder, before letting her reconnect with the others.

It was in that moment that he realised, he was in love with Carol Peletier.

Since she had gotten back, he hadn't let her out of his sight. The group were sat around the fire, most of them either asleep, or drunk out of their faces as Tyreese had found some Vodka back at the house where he protected Judith from that cannibal. Rick, Carl and Michonne were inside, cooing over Judith. Maggie and Glenn sounded like they were attempting to sing what sounded like a cross between Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke and Best Of Both Worlds by Hannah Montana in a drunken stupor.

The others seemed to be asleep, most likely passed out from the amount of alcohol they had consumed. Daryl turned to look at Carol who had her head led against his shoulder.

"What's up?" He asked her. His voice was soft and husky, instead of being loud and sharp like it usually was.

"It would have been Sophia's birthday today." She replied gently. She wasn't crying, she was too strong to cry. But that didn't hide the pain that Daryl could see in her eyes.

"I know. It's been hard for me too." He said, kissing the top of her head and rubbing her back.

"Really?" Carol asked. She never really knew that Daryl had given any thought to Sophia before she had disappeared.

"Yeah. We got on well, me and your girl." He said, smiling at her.

"I didn't even know she had spoken to you." Carol admitted, smiling up at Daryl.

"Yeah, she did. I don't want to upset you though s-"

"No, you won't." Carol Interrupted. "I promise."

"I remember, back when you were with Ed, I was Sharpening a stick with my pen knife, when she came over to me. At first, I ignored her, acted my usual self. She said to me "You're tough Daryl Dixon. Even I know that. You're not like you're brother are you?""

Daryl could remember the little smile she had on her small face as she spoke to him for the first time. She was full of curiosity and so full of hope that things were going to get better.

"Anyway, I smiled at her and said "How so?" She told me about Ed and what he did to you both. How he caused you pain. And she said "You know what you bring to me, my mom and the rest of this camp, Dixon? Hope. I think you can help us." She was a sweetheart, but also a hard-ass. I mean it was her first time meeting me and she called me Dixon."

Carol was smiling. Tears threatened to glisten in her eyes but she fought them back.

"Every time she spoke to me after that, she would give me one of these."

Daryl pulled out a flower from his inside coat pocket. It looked rather old and dead now, but Carol recognised what it was almost instantly.

"A Cherokee Rose?" She said as if it were a question, not a statement.

Daryl nodded and placed it in Carol's hands. Carol looked up to the stars and smiled, knowing that in the middle of the end of the world, she couldn't be more content then she was right now being in Daryl's arms and holding the last item resembling a memory of her daughter that her little family shared.

Daryl, Carol and Sophia.

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